Sudden data roaming charge to phone with data roaming disabled on Motorola droid

Question

I have used a droid for the 2 years plus that I have been with Verizon.  I work for a cruise line on a ship.  I am in port every 8 days and use my phone on that day.  I leave my data roaming TURNED OFF at ALL times because I am aware that charges for this are very high when roaming on a ship (I have worked on cruise ships for over 12 years).
For two years I have used my phone in the US port that serves as my home port (Ft Lauderdale this year) and when I get back on board I put the phone in my pocket, forget about it until I get to my room at which time I put it on my desk and it stays there until I either turn it off or until the battery dies.  I have NEVER been charged data roaming fees in the past two years until the past month.  I have made NO CHANGE whatsoever in the way my phone is set up.
This month I received over 500 dollars in data roaming charges which I am being told are 'legitimate charges' because apparently data was pushed to my phone while it was on the ship sailing out of Ft. Lauderdale with data roaming DISABLED.  This happened every 8 days (the debark/embark day for my ship) for an entire month billing period.  Customer Service reps have looked and determined that the data is being pushed to my phone late in the day as my ship sails out of Ft. Lauderdale.
I initially called Verizon on Nov 30th (after receiving messages on the 29th warning me that I was being charged higher than normal data roaming charges) and was told that I was indeed setting my phone up correctly to prevent Data Roaming charges and an investigation was started.  I was not told to change anything about the way my phone was set up, as long as in fact Data Roaming was disabled.  On December 4th my phone again had data pushed to it as the ship sailed away from Florida.  I called on the 5th of December and was told to turn ALL DATA off on my phone when getting on a ship.  By this time the entire 500 plus dollar amount of data had somehow been pushed to my phone.  (I have no idea what the heck it is...I didn't use it for anything).
Since this has happened I have called multiple customer service reps, all of whom have been very nice on the phone and promised to look into the matter and call me back.  No one has ever called back.  Twice supervisors have submitted my data roaming charges to be removed only to be turned down by someone saying the charges are correct and that data was sent to my phone and thus the charges are legitimate.  The point that I make over and over again is that I wasn't told by anyone from Verizon to turn ALL DATA off when going on a ship until December 5th, and further that my usage pattern with the phone during the past month is EXACTLY the same as it has been over the past two plus years when I WAS NOT being charged for data roaming.  By December 5th all the charges had already accrued so following directions to TURN ALL DATA OFF when on the ship didn't affect my outstanding charges.  (Further, I called Motorola and a tech there told me that having data roaming disabled on the phone should be sufficient to prevent ANY data from being received by the phone while it is roaming...this, he told me, is exactly why the phone has that option as well as the ability using a completely different button to turn on and off ALL data.
I did speak with another Customer Service rep today who told me that she had resolved the issue and that an adjustment would be made to my bill within the next 48 hours.  I asked her if this was contingent on approval from somewhere up the line and she said no, that she understood what I was saying and plead my case successfully to a supervisor and the adjustment was being made.
If the adjustment is in fact made I will repost here stating that.  If it isn't made then it will be the 6th phone call I have made to Customer Service that hasn't resulted in taking care of an issue that is in NO WAY my fault nor is it my responsibility in my opinion.  I set my phone up NOT to receive data while roaming and after there was a problem I followed the instructions that Verizon Customer Service personnel gave me to the letter.
Just to clarify, if this had happened the first month I had been on ships (over two years ago) when using Verizon or this phone then I would be more inclined to believe that I had made some mistake and just pay and turn the darned thing off carefully every time I walked up the gangway of the ship, but since I have had Data Roaming disabled the ENTIRE time I have owned the phone and have never been charged before then I feel I was justified in thinking that disabling Data Roaming on the phone would successfully.....well....disable the phones ability to receive DATA while ROAMING.

Answer 1

Thanks for that information.  I read a lot of posts here before I posted mine and based on what I have seen from others I tried to be as detailed as possible.  If I send anything to a VZW account I will leave my cell number and contact information as you suggest.  I'm still hopeful that the last customer service rep I talked to was honest and accurate when she told me the situation had been resolved in my favor.
  I saw many posts from folks that seemed to be asking for adjustments to bills for mistakes that they themselves had made but I honestly don't think I'm in that postion.
On the other hand I am in the position of having to deal with Customer Service reps who have probably heard pretty much everything in the book from folks to try to get charges reduced, so upper level supervisors who can actually approve my bill adjustment are probably not even reading the entire text from my multiple phone calls and explanations,  thus simply declining the two supervisors who understood my situation and made the request for the billing adjustment.
The way it works (from what I can tell) is that the customer contact level person has a supervisor that they have to report to who then has to send any bill adjustment request (or perhaps any request over a certain amount) to another supervisor (one who is NOT ever in direct contact with customers) who makes the final call on whether or not a bill adjustment request goes through.
My main frustration comes from the fact that you can never request to speak with the last representative that you spoke with on the phone (according to all the reps I spoke with) and they can't even call each other...all of their communication is done via email.  This tends to ...from what I have experienced....create situations where a rep will tell a customer whatever they want to hear, knowing that there is almost NO CHANCE that they will ever have to speak to that customer again.  It also creates a situation where if the last rep didn't leave detailed or accurate notes then you have to go over every detail of your situation with the next rep you speak with.
My converstation with the Customer Service person who told me the issue was resolved took place yesterday morning so if things are actually taken care of then tomorrow should be the day the adjustment comes in at the latest.
Thanks again for your suggestion.  I wouldn't have known how to contact anyone directly from Verizon here without your post.